How To Teach The Standards for Mathematical Practice

Math Pedagogy | 1 comment

When the Common Core Standards first came out, like everybody else, I went directly to my grade level standards to see what I needed to teach. That’s common because we have to figure out what has changed and what we’re responsible for helping our kids...

Number Sense for Upper Elementary

Fractions, Multiplication-Division, Number Sense | 0 comments

I’ve been getting lots of requests to talk about what number sense looks like for upper grades kiddos, especially upper elementary and even into middle school. I have been talking about these four number relationships that I first discovered through John Van de...

Top 5 Rekenrek Activities

Number Sense, Subitizing | 0 comments

Here are links to products/activities mentioned in this vlog. (Some may be affiliate links which just means that if you do purchase using my link, the company you purchased from sends me some money. Find more info HERE about that.) Mastering the MathRack book The BEST...

How to Implement Number Sense and Still Teach Your Curriculum

Number Sense | 3 comments

Last week I did a video all about what number sense is and I got some feedback like, “I know what this is, but now, how do I develop it?”  and “How do I develop it, especially when the curriculum I am using doesn’t have number sense activities?” I also heard...

What is Number Sense and Why It’s So Essential

Building Number Sense, Number Sense, Subitizing | 15 comments

The number one concern I hear from teachers is that their students struggle with number sense and they want to build that for their kiddos. However, although we know our kiddos don’t have a good sense of numbers, it’s hard to define what Number Sense is. If you don’t...

Why the “Make 10” Strategy is WAY better than “Doubles” Strategy for Fact Fluency

Fact Fluency, Number Sense | 4 comments

When helping kids develop Fact Fluency I believe in focusing on 4 Types of Facts and then how those facts are related to all the other facts. You may have seen the chart below in previous posts of mine, but this chart shows those 4 Types of Facts: Doubles (orange),...

Building the Benchmarks of 5 and 10

Number Sense | 7 comments

My favorite topic is number sense and my favorite number relationship that builds number sense is the Benchmarks of 5 & 10.  Now, I know you really shouldn’t have a favorite, they all are essential (just like all of my kids…but depending upon the day,...